14 Jan 2014

Manchester District Music Archive present 'Musical Adventures in Manchester' featuring The Prospectors with Graham Massey live at the Band on The Wall, Manchester on Monday 24 February 2014.

Doors open at 6.45pm and admission is free (but see note at end about guest list).

The Prospectors are a 12-strong band of disabled musicians who have been playing and gigging in and around Manchester for over eight years. Led by Drake Music's Fil Hill and Andy Boothman, the group uses a complex combination of Soundbeam, iPads, Ableton and live instrumentation to create experimental reworks of pop and dance classics. For one night only The Prospectors will be joined by Manchester rave pioneer Graham Massey (Biting Tongues / 808 State / Massonix / Toolshed) for a set of tracks inspired by music from our fair city.

Nice Touch are a collective of young disabled musicians from Bolton who have been making music with collaborator Kenton Mann (Music Unlimited) since June of last year. The band work on original material and aim to spread joy wherever they go. Tonight will be their Manchester debut.

Compere Longfella is one of the UK's most renowned performance poets and an all-round Manchester hero.

DJ support on the night comes from All FM's Vicky Richardson and MDMArchive's Abigail Ward.

This event is supported by Stockport Cerebral Palsy Society - a charity that promotes independence for children and adults with physical and/or learning disabilities, Drake Music - a charity that removes disabling barriers to music and Manchester College.

Admission is free. Please register for guest list places by emailing: info@mdmarchive.co.uk with 'Musical Adventures' in the subject field (PLEASE USE EXACT WORDS).

In the grey days of late 1970s post-punk Manchester, youth culture was a serious affair: every musical performance was measured mostly by the conviction of its delivery. The term 'New Wave' opened up free vistas where acquired skills could once again be exercised after punk's monochrome blur. It could be applied to anything from a James 'Blood' Ulmer record to the latest Throbbing Gristle release, Magazine to Swell Maps. Move outside that terrain into Sun Ra, Parliament, Frank Sinatra and Martin Denny, and your options were suddenly without limit...

Then came Tony Wilson's Factory Club (at the Russell Club in Hulme) offering an open invitation to experiment that was taken up when Ken Hollings, Howard Walmsley, Eddie Sherwood and a few others decided to make some noise to accompany their 16mm silent epic Biting Tongues. A further performance followed a few weeks later, when Colin Seddon and Graham Massey disbanded their Post Natals project and joined up. The film itself, a flashing series of negative images, became a memory; the name remained.